It's Q4 2022 and end-of-year earnings time, which means automakers have to try to appeal not only to investors, but also to Wall Street analysts. Fisker is likely in for a rough road ahead, as are most startups, especially electric automakers. Nonetheless, the company noted that orders are up and it will maintain its production forecast for 2023.
Fisker's shares soared on the good news of its Ocean electric SUV seeing increased orders, despite all sorts of global turmoil and economic issues. Fisker reiterated that it would still aim to produce 42,400 EVs in partnership with Magna International this year.
Pavel Molchanov, an analyst at Raymond James, shared that folks were worried that Ocean production would be delayed. He calls Fisker stock spike a "relief rally," as investors' and analysts' worries may have been cast aside, at least temporarily. Meanwhile, he believes the EV maker will only produce some 30,000 vehicles this year.
Another analyst, Garret Nelson from CFRA Research, said that Fiskler's 2023 production target is "borderline ludicrous given the struggles of EV peers and Fisker's production of 56 vehicles so far."
That said, CEO Henrik Fisker assured analysts during the automaker's recent earnings conference call that Magna is poised to produce 20 EVs per day now. He also added that the manufacturer plans to ramp up its efforts in Q2 2023. The chief even said that prior production restrictions were intentional for a number of reasons, including testing for homologation.
While it's been uncommon for most EV startups in the US to have impressive demand early on, Fisker is in a different position than many companies since it's entering the market with a relatively affordable EV. The Ocean electric SUV starts at just $37,499, and it's a premium vehicle like the Tesla Model Y, which is priced at about $55,000. Henrik Fisker shared with Reuters:
"We were well-priced from the beginning. That's something that, I think, now is bearing fruit."
Fisker went on to report that reservations for the Ocean moved up from 62,000 in October of 2022 to 65,000 by the end of February 2023.
The company expects expenses of $610 million for 2023 as a whole. At the end of December 2022, it had over $730 million on hand. Fisker also expects gross margins to come in between 8% and 12% for the year.
